A Tiny Plot: New Podcast Follows an Unhoused Community in Oakland Fighting for Self-Determination

The California Report just turned 30! On November 4, we’re throwing a party to celebrate, at KQED in San Francisco, with special guests whose stories we’ve featured on our show. This week we’re reprising two of those stories. ⁠How Experimental Composer and Performer Kishi Bashi Brings New Ideas to Life⁠⁠ Kishi Bashi has been releasing music for over a decade. The Santa Cruz-based musician and composer defies genre, and it’s hard even for his fans to describe his work – yet they feel deeply connected to his music. For our series on California Composers, we sent reporter Lusen Mendel to one of his shows in San Francisco to see if they could figure it out. ⁠This Stockton Park Is a Weekend Haven for Hmong and Cambodian Bites⁠ On the northern end of Stockton, you'll find Angel Cruz Park. Most weekends it's lined with food vendors, many of them Hmong and Cambodian immigrants. For more than 30 years, this has been a destination for made-to-order dishes, where locals argue over who has the best beef sticks or papaya salad. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse spent a day at the park, learning about the people behind the food. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Need a Gorgeous Diwali Outfit? Nimisha Aunty Will Take Care of You On a recent weekend, a Morgan Hill home’s two-car garage was transformed into something dazzling. Shoppers tried on embroidered Indian outfits and excitedly chatted in Hindi and Gujarati. This is Nivy’s Nook, the homegrown boutique Nimisha Jadav runs out of her garage. As part of our series about about people spreading joy and building connection in their communities, The California Report’s intern Srishti Prabha found that while people may come here looking for saris, chaniya cholis and salwar kameez, they leave with so much more. ⁠After Nearly 2 Years of War in Gaza, More LA Rabbis Push Back⁠ This week marked the second anniversary of the October 7th attacks. And news of an initial cease fire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas is offering some hope of ending the war in Gaza. Even before this preliminary agreement was announced, Reporter Benjamin Gottlieb had been talking with Jewish leaders in Los Angeles, who’ve been taking a very public stance against the war – and the actions of the Israeli Government – for the first time in two years. The West Coast’s First Naval Base Is Now A Whiskey Distillery Californians have made whiskey since the Gold Rush, but craft bourbon has taken off in the last couple decades, with as many as 150 distilleries here in the state. For her series California Foodways, Lisa Morehouse visited a distillery in Solano County that’s producing whiskey at a location where the Navy once built ships and submarines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On October 6, 1995, The California Report’s first weekly show went on the air. Today we’re celebrating our birthday with a look back at that first show, which explored issues we’re still grappling with today, and featured a soundscape that created a roadmap for covering this huge, diverse state.  How a Chinese Laundryman Shaped US Civil Rights From San Francisco The increased number of violent ICE raids and arrests have escalated concerns about the equal protection and due process rights of migrants. Non-citizens won these rights more than a century ago, when two Chinese laundrymen brought their fight against discrimination all the way to the US Supreme Court. Yick Wo vs. Hopkins is just one way early Chinese immigrants helped shape constitutional principles that remain foundational to American democracy. And as KQED’s  Cecilia Lei reports, that case still resonates today. A Day in the Life of San José’s Rapid Response Network, Built to Resist ICE Fear The Trump administration's aggressive tactics around immigration enforcement have spread fear in immigrant communities. But volunteers across California are staffing hotlines around the clock, and joining rapid response networks to help inform immigrants about their rights. KQED’s Carlos Cabrera-Lomeli spent a day with the Rapid Response Network in Santa Clara County. Need Community Support? Dial 'MYSTERY' to Reach San Francisco’s Creative Mutual Aid Hotline When you think of mutual aid, you might think of people raising money online to help others in their community with financial emergencies like covering rent or a big debt. Or maybe it’s neighbors sharing food or used furniture with each other. Some volunteers in the Bay Area are putting a more creative spin on what mutual aid can look like. KQED’s Hussain Khan has more as part of our new series all about the little things people are doing for each other these days, that can mean a lot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we’re bringing you an excerpt from the first episode of a new podcast called A Tiny Plot, from our friends at KQED’s Snap Studios. About one third of our nation’s homeless population is here in California – with close to 6,000 people on the streets each night in Oakland alone. Producer Shaina Shealy spent more than a year following a group of unhoused people at Union Point Park in Oakland as they fought for a radical idea: their own encampment where they could set their own rules. If their idea worked, the people of Union Point believed they could create a model that would help other homeless people across the state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Located near Hayward in Alameda County, Russell City was once home to mostly Black, Latino and poor white families boxed out of other Bay Area neighborhoods by redlining and the cost of living. But in the 1960s, after the county refused to extend water and sewer service to Russell City, it declared it a “blight,” and used eminent domain laws to bulldoze the community and displace more than 1,000 residents.  A few years ago, the City of Hayward made a formal apology to former residents, acknowledging that the destruction of Russell City was part of a nationwide pattern of displacing communities of color.  And this year, lawmakers are considering a program that would give people in similar situations a chance to apply for money or land as compensation. It’s called Assembly Bill 62, and it’s part of California’s wider reparations proposal. It would be the first of its kind in the United States, but it builds on the legacy of reparations efforts around the world, including Germany’s decades-long programs for Holocaust survivors.  KQED’s Annelise Finney explains how the German model might guide reparations efforts in California. And for the podcast Bay Curious, KQED’s Spencer Whitney visits with former residents and other people with deep ties to Russell City to learn about the lasting pain of losing the place they called home. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, our series on Californians and resilience continues with Oakland comedian Jackie Keliiaa. She’s a stand-up, writer, actor, and producer whose work not only reflects on her everyday life, but also her Native heritage. She’s been featured on Comedy Central, Team Coco, Netflix and IllumiNative's list of 25 Native American Comedians to Follow, and she organizes the all-Native comedy show, Good Medicine. Host Sasha Khokha sat down with Keliiaa for a conversation about comedy, identity, and how laughter can help keep us going during hard times.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we’re bringing you an excerpt of the KQED podcast Close All Tabs, which features stories about how digital culture shapes our lives. Their new occasional series, OGs of Tech, looks beyond the billionaires to spotlight the often-overlooked innovators who helped build the digital world we live in today. One of these OGs is Felidoro Cueva, who grew up in a rural village in the Andes mountains of Peru, and immigrated to the U.S. in 1964, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. He went on to become one of the first Latino engineers in Silicon Valley. His daughter – and Close All Tabs producer Maya Cueva – takes us through Feli’s journey: from counterculture experimentation to the discrimination he faced in a startup world where Latino representation was nearly nonexistent.  And we make another stop on our road trip series, Hidden Gems, which takes you to out-of-the-way spots across the state that aren’t your typical tourist destinations. Today we dig into our archives and visit Volcano, in Amador County, and head 100 feet underground into the Black Chasm Cavern with KQED’s Bianca Taylor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Labor Day weekend, we’re bringing you some of our favorite stories from the California Report Magazine archive. You may have seen these viral stories on your social media feeds: a frightened shelter dog bonding with their foster; a good samaritan helping a street vendor by buying all their merchandise; an artist drawing a portrait of a stranger and listening to their life story. These acts strike a nerve, and it turns out we humans are actually wired for this kind of kindness, connection and empathy. That’s what Dr. Jamil Zaki has discovered in the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab. He’s a professor of psychology and the author of Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness. He sat down with host Sasha Khokha in January and shared some data-driven reasons why we shouldn’t be cynical, even in really hard times.  And we got to Oakland, where the Freedom Community Clinic is providing free herbal remedies, massage services and healing workshops at their two apothecaries. And last fall, they launched the Ancestral Healing Farm, where people of color are encouraged to learn about ancestral practices and reconnect with the land. The goal of founder Dr. Bernie Lim is to reach people who might mistrust the mainstream medical system because of racism or cultural incompetency. KQED Arts & Culture Editor Nastia Voynovskaya brought us this profile in January. And we end today in Half Moon Bay, where just a few steps from the ocean sits a 60-year-old music venue with an unusual name, an amazing history and some of the best live jazz music you could ever hope to find. We’re digging into our Hidden Gems archives to bring you a story from Reporter Ryan Levi, who visited the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society back in 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Independent Journalist Covering Immigration Raids In Her Own Community  Earlier this summer, 17-year-old Kevin Robles was in his friend's car driving through their neighborhood in Oceanside when he noticed vehicles with tinted windows and nearby, masked men taking someone out of a red car. He started live streaming on Instagram and it went viral. But then a little over a week later agents with Homeland Security Investigations showed up at his family’s home, smashing windows and tossing flash grenades, taking both of his parents into custody. Aisha Wallace Palomares was one of the first journalists to talk to Kevin Robles about what happened.  She is an independent reporter who's covering ICE Raids in her hometown of Escondido, as well as other places around San Diego. She spoke with host Sasha Khokha about covering these raids in her community as an independent journalist.  ⁠⁠Journalists Fleeing Authoritarian Regimes Now at Risk, as Trump Ends Parole Program⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ President Trump is ending a Biden-era humanitarian program that let people from unstable or authoritarian countries come to the United States legally. One of them is a journalist who fled Nicaragua and ended up in the Bay Area. KQED’s Immigration Editor Tyche Hendricks brings us her story. ⁠Legal Immigrants Face Deportation After Decades In the US⁠ A federal program called Temporary Protected Status allows the US to offer residency to immigrants whose home countries have been devastated by natural disasters or war. But for tens of thousands of immigrants, “temporary” has lasted for decades. Now, the Trump administration is moving to end much of the program and that could uproot as many as one million people. Reporter Benjamin Gottlieb spoke to several people in Los Angeles who now find themselves in this immigration limbo.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a Pasadena Church is Helping One Senior Through Wildfire Recovery It’s been more than seven months since the Eaton Fire tore across Altadena, just east of Los Angeles. Rebuilding homes and neighborhoods could take years – a daunting timeline, especially for seniors. Local advocates worry that many elders within Altadena’s historic Black community won’t be able to rebuild. Afro LA’s Corinne Ruff has this story of how members of a church in Pasadena are coming together to support an elder congregant as she works to rebuild her home, and her life.  Fix a Zipper and Save the Planet at San Francisco’s Free Clothing Repair Clinics Usually public libraries are quiet spaces, but on a recent evening in San Francisco’s Glen Park neighborhood, the building was buzzing with the sound of sewing machines. Once a month, libraries around the city transform into pop-up clothing repair clinics. On the face of it, it’s a chance to patch that hole in your go-to jacket or finally fix that broken zipper on your skirt, but the goal of the program is to help residents reuse items, and keep them out of the landfill. KQED’s Bianca Taylor takes us inside. Repairing a 1957 Vintage Radio Rekindled a Daughter’s Bond With Her Dad For reporter Rachael Myrow, radio has long been a fixture in her life – not just through her career in public broadcasting, but also through a connection to her father. Fred Myrow was an LA composer who wrote soundtracks to films like Soylent Green and Phantasm. She tells us how the discovery of her father’s beloved old radio has strengthened their bond many years after his death.  The Truth Behind One of the State’s Most Ubiquitous Bumper Stickers We’ve all seen them before: those bright yellow bumper stickers that read “Mystery Spot” in black lettering. But what, actually, happens at the Mystery Spot? In 2021, reporter Amanda Font  followed the story to the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains for our Hidden Gems series.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices